COLOSSUS: A New Menace Read online

  COLOSSUS

  A New Menace

  Book 3

  ChAPTER 1

  The Humans on board their spaceship Colossus had just left Planet Abor to begin their continued effort to find a new homeworld. It had been discussed in a meeting with the Armada, which originally included the Humans, the Aborians, and the Daakie, that the Humans would continue on with their search for a new homeworld and would not participate in the Elimination Hive mission.

  The Armada which consisted of 100 Aborian Predators, 5 Aborian Raptors, 4 Daakie Zurguts, and 8 Daakie Transports, had just come out of hyperspace at a location 100,000 miles from the Negra System (home of the Daakie homeworld, Planet Daak).

  The Aborian High Mage Cina had been assigned one of the new Raptor warships and asked the Daakie commanders to teleport to her ship for a final discussion prior to moving forward with the Elimination Hive mission. Present at the meeting, other than the Daakie commanders, was three Predator commanders that would be taking charge of cloaked surveillance near Planet Daak.

  The three Predators were to observe all activity within a close proximity to the planet, then return to the location of the Armada. In the meeting, High Mage Cina asked, “Caid Maalik, I think it best that when we move into close proximity of Planet Daak, you should order your Zurguts to position themselves near the back of the Armada.

  “My reasoning for this is to protect King Gorvik and Queen Junal from taking serious damage to the vessel they are on. If the Hive numbers are less than we expect, all the better. Do you agree with my thinking?”

  “Yes, indeed. King Gorvik is the last of his family’s bloodline and it would be devastating for the Daakie people to lose their only remaining royal blood. We must protect them at all cost. Even if it means we have to abandon the mission.”

  “Abandoning the mission is not an option, Caid. I’m quite confident that will not be necessary. Do you have any thoughts you would like to share on how you want to proceed in consideration of the ground assault? If I remember correctly there should be a build up of Hive on the surface of Planet Daak.”

  “Yes, I do, Commander. Since we know the lay of the land it would be advantageous for my Zurguts to lead an assault on the planet with the exception of my ship, which has our King and Queen on board. We should begin our attack near the king’s palace, then move outward from there.”

  “I will agree to that Caid, but since my Raptors have four hundred warriors on each ship, I think it prudent to have at least two of them land near the area you designate as the best tactical area to proceed with the ground assault. My warriors will utilize our Wardogs as a means of transport and will provide them cover against any incoming fire from the Hive soldiers.”

  “I have not seen or heard anything about a Wardog. Could you please give me a few details as to their capabilities?”

  “Our Wardogs aren’t that much different than the Human’s Rovers with the exception the Wardog is capable of hauling thirty warriors inside, can float and fight while in water. They have eight plasma cannons and a double barrel nuclear grenade launcher with an inventory of twelve grenades.”

  “Excellent weapon, High Mage. They will most surely be of help in the ground assault. I have nothing else to ask other than we are honored to serve with the Aborians.”

  “That goes for us as well, Caid Maalik. Now, all we need to do is find out our enemies' strength, then once we know, we will make our final preparations for battle. You may return to your ships and I will inform you of our findings once my Predators return from their reconnaissance.”

  ****

  Back on Colossus, and while in hyperspace, General Dubois had ordered Colonel Hammer to oversee the maintenance of the ship’s hornets and combat wasps. Hammer had Commodore Jeeves along to help with diagnostics should any pilot inform him of any electronic problems with their assigned spacecraft.

  The two men were at a stand-up desk going over papers handed to them by pilots that had completed their checklists on a variety critical functions of their attack craft. Jeeves was looking for any notations that might need to be looked at. Hammer would give the completed form a once over then hand it to Jeeves.

  They had completed looking over the four papers given to them by the pilots, and while waiting to receive more, Jeeves said, “So, Colonel, when were you planning on telling me about your relationship with Empress Katin?”

  “I wasn’t aware I needed to explain my personal life to you, Commodore.”

  “Are we not friends as well as comrades in arms, Jak?”

  “Yes, I would say we are both of those, but neither requires a duty to inform one another about private matters unless one chooses to do so, which on this matter, I do not.”

  “Aw, come on Jak. I admit I do not know much about relationships between a man and a woman, but I can tell she has some kind of power over you. Anyone seeing the way you two look at each other wonders the same thing.”

  “Oh, they do do they? Katin does not have any powers over me, my good man.”

  “Are you and her going to get betrothed?”

  “Betrothed. I’m not a Daakie, Jeeves, and no we are not getting married. At least I don’t think we are for quite some time.”

  “Very well, Jak. I am wondering though, who will be your best man when you do decide to marry the beautiful Empress? It is customary for Humans that get married to have a best man at their ceremony isn’t it?”

  Jak just stared at Jeeves, then said, “I suppose so, and if I ever do get married it would honor me if you would stand by me as my best man, Jeeves.”

  “Excellent. Okay, I’m finished asking you about your personal life. I just wanted to get that question resolved so there will be no confusion when the ceremony takes place. I feel much better now.”

  Hammer smiled at his best buddy and they went back to what they were doing prior to their discussion. Jak was feeling a powerful yearning for his lover but didn’t dare tell Jeeves about it. He was also wondering how long they would be apart and how would he know if Katin became pregnant. If she did he wanted to be with her when their child is born but didn’t have a clue about how that would go about happening.

  “Well, I’m almost finished, Jak. One more important question and that is when are you going to ask the Empress to share their stealth technology with us. If she cares as much about you as you think, wouldn’t she understand the importance of stealth to safeguard your return?”

  “You know you ask a lot of dumb questions, Jeeves, but I have to admit that is not one of them, and frankly I’m surprised at myself for not asking her about that.”

  Chapter 2

  Colossus was on a heading for a place known as the Hagar System and they were still nearly sixty light years from that system. Sitting in his command chair, Admiral Allen was thinking about Caid Maalik and the rest of the Armada. He knew the best thing for all the souls on board his ship was to continue on searching for a new homeworld, but that didn’t appease the worry and disappointment he felt by not going with the Armada.

  “Admiral, Chief McManus. Could you find time to meet me in the engine room? I’ve just finished doing my daily analytics on our hyperdrive and have some interesting readings I need to talk to you about.”

  “Sure, Chief, I’ll be right down.” Allen turned towards Vice Admiral Petrov and said, “Admiral, I’m needed in the engine room. You have command until I return.”

  “Aye, Admiral.”

  Allen walks into the engine room and finds, Chief McManus, halfway inside a large section of the hyperdrive and got there in time to hear the chief say, “You bastard mother of all headaches.”

  Being in the engine room while the hyperdrive is activated is a loud place to be working and Allen was standing behind th
e chief announcing he was there but the chief couldn’t hear him.

  Finally, Allen nudged the chief making him jump and bump his head on the top of the engine housing. Chief McManus came out of the opening holding the top of his head and saw the admiral standing next to him. He was about to spread out a long line of Irish curse words but decided to hold back.

  “Gave me a fright there, Admiral.”

  Sorry, Chief. What’s the problem?”

  We have two serious malfunctions going on, Admiral. The repulsor compensator is starting to heat up more than normal. But the bigger problem is, I think the hyperdrive actuation diode is about to go out on us, sir. I’m surprised we haven’t already lost our ability to stay in hyperspace, Admiral. We need to drop out of FTL so I can take a look at the diode and replace the repulsor, sir.”

  “Can you give me a timeframe on how long the repairs will take?”

  “Replacing the repulsor compensator will only take about ten minutes, but I really can’t say about the diode until the engine has time to cool down so I can run some tests. If the diode needs to be removed and replaced, I’d need two days to fix it.”

  “Damn, Chief. Two whole days, huh?”

  “Yes, sir, and that is rushing it.”

  No sooner did the words escape the chief’s mouth, then the Colossus dropped out of hyperspace and the sudden speed differential sent both the admiral and the chief to the floor of the engine room, and they rolled nearly thirty feet before coming to a stop.

  Looking up at the ceiling of the engine room while laying on his back, Admiral Allen said, “I would say the diode just stopped working, wouldn’t you?”

  “Aye, Admiral. I believe it has.”

  Allen got up off the floor followed by the chief and Allen said, “Get whoever you need to help you fix the hyperdrive, Chief. Let’s do what’s necessary to get us back online and as quickly as possible. I don’t need to tell you that being out here without jump capabilities is not a notion I want to worry about for any length of time. Now hop to it, Gavin.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.”

  On his way back to the bridge he was hailed by Admiral Petrov. “Allen.”

  “Admiral, I need you to come to the bridge. When we came out of FTL we came out only a few hundred miles from an asteroid field. Our sensors are showing activity inside the field and it's not the asteroids.”

  “On my way.”

  Before he had time to get to the bridge he was hailed again, “Allen.”

  “Admiral, its Dr. Stavens. Why did we come out of hyperspace without the customary announcement we were going to drop out? I’ve got several head injuries as well as some sprained ankles and bruised arms.”

  “Chief McManus had called me about thirty minutes before the hyperdrive quit working. I was in the engine room when it suddenly dropped out. I too was thrown about and am making my way back to the bridge. Is there anything I need to help you do?”

  “No, I just need to explain to all my new patients what happened. Sorry to have bothered you, sir.” It was obvious to Allen that the good doctor was near other crew members because of the formality she used in addressing him.

  “No need to be sorry, Doctor. If there is nothing else, I’ll let you go.”

  “Nothing at this time, sir.”

  Five minutes later Allen stepped into Command Central and immediately asked, “What type of activity, Admiral?”

  Colossus had come out of FTL in a system with a small dim red star known as Mikos. In the planning stages, the two admirals decided to bypass the small system on their way to the Hagar System. But Colossus’s sensors were showing the small system had four planets orbiting it and they were all rocky planets. The asteroid field was large and circled the entire system, which made it one of the biggest fields of asteroids seen during their four year trip into the stars.

  “I’m not quite certain, Admiral, but I think there seems to be some type of intelligent aliens, and they seem to be mining ore from the asteroids.”

  Pointing at one of the largest asteroids, Allen said, “Zoom in on that one, Ensign Cherny.”

  The ensign did as instructed, and the close up of the asteroid showed a fairly good sized ore hauler vessel leaving the surface of the asteroid with large chunks of the asteroid sticking out of its cargo bins.

  “Well, I’ll be damned. Whoever they are they are doing what we should have begun doing long ago back on Earth. I argued long ago about the importance of figuring out a way to mine asteroids. Heaven knows there are millions of them back in our Solar System.”

  “What do you think we should do Admiral?” Petrov asked.

  “Nothing for the time being. Let’s stay where we are and observe them. Keep an eye on that hauler. I want to see if it is going to go inward towards one of the four planets. If it does, then I think we have found another intelligent race living on one of those planets.”

  Chapter 3

  The three reconnaissance Predators sent out by the Aborian High Mage Cina had just returned to the Armada to give their report on Hive activity near and on Planet Daak. Their report was not good news. In fact, Cina called for a meeting with Tage Doni, Low Mage Arian (Arian answers only to Empress Katin and the High Mage), and the Daakie commanders after debriefing the recon pilots.

  The Daakie Burseqs and the Aborians were looking at a recording the pilots took of the area around the planet. There was not one but three of the Hive’s large circular command stations and over one-hundred Hive nests.

  Several lines of nests were positioning themselves for docking to the command stations. Nests were docking, and as soon as one nest left another would take its place. Their command stations were positioned in different locations around the planet.

  Transport ships were coming from, and going to the planet. As the commanders watched the recording, Tage Doni pointed at a certain location and asked for that portion to be zoomed in.

  Everyone took a keen interest in what they were seeing. Four flatbed style haulers were hauling sections of an extremely large disc. Following the haulers were two more hauling long square metal tubes.

  “They are building something down on our planet. Those sections, when put together is going to be a massive communication’s array or a new weapon, High Mage,” Caid Maalik said.

  “I agree, Caid.”

  Turning to one of the Predator commanders, Cina asked, “The nest count is one-hundred, correct, Commander Lelin?

  “No, High Mage. That is the count out in different areas of space orbiting the planet. There are thirty docks on a station and three to four nests waiting to dock at every dock. There were no Hiver fighters present at any given time.”

  “Damn it. That’s four-hundred nests,” Maalik said.

  “The Hive has moved a lot of resources from somewhere and brought it to your homeworld, Caid. It is my believe the Hive has chosen this location to build an exceptionally powerful presence in this area.

  “But they have to have a homeworld, and I do not believe any of us, the Humans included, have found such a place. I want to know where their homeworld is and our best chance of finding that out is to get tracking devices on a few of their jump capable ships.

  “Sounds like an excellent plan, Cina, but how are we going to do that?” Burseq Amiik asked.

  “You have a group of fast moving ships like the Human Darts, do you not?”

  “Yes. we do. But how will they plant a tracking device on those nests?” asked Amiik.

  “It’s simple. Our devices are magnetized and all your pilots need to do is fly close enough to a nest to discharge the trackers. The devices carry an explosive charge strong enough to propel the devices a thousand yards. When the trackers contact metal of any type, they will adhere themselves to the metal.

  “The Raptor commanded by Low Mage Arian can accept your fast ships into its bay. How many fast ships do you have on your Zurguts?”

  “We have two on each Battlestar, making it a total of six,” Maalik answered.

  “My reason
ing for having your fast ships fitted with the trackers on one of my Raptors is we are too far out for your fast ships to get to Planet Daak and get back with sufficient oxygen for their pilots. So releasing them close enough to get the task done is best by using the Raptor which can remain cloaked until the short amount of time it would take the tracker ships to disembark.

  “We will not attack until the devices are planted. Our warships have monitoring capabilities that will let them know which nest is carrying the trackers. Now, if there are no more questions, let’s proceed, shall we? I am not in favor of staying this close to such a large presence of Hive, and we cannot afford to be found out before our attack.”

  The meeting concluded and the Daakie commanders went back to their ships in order to send the selected pilots and ships over to Low Mage Arian’s Raptor. An hour later and fitted with the trackers, Low Mage Arian informed her commanding High Mage she was ready to take the ships to their drop off point.

  “Excellent, Low Mage. I presume you know to stay in the general area to pick up the Daakie ships, correct?”

  “Affirmative. See you when we get back.”

  Two hours had passed since Low Mage Arian had taken off on the tracker mission. High Mage Cina was starting to get anxious because she thought they should have been back. She was about to order one of her Predators to go look for them when she was hailed by Arian.

  “I am pleased that you are on your way back. Did you have any problems with the mission?”

  “None. It was a perfect tracker set and you should be able to detect the devices by now.”

  “Hold for a minute,” Cina called out to the warrior in charge of monitoring and asked if she could see the trackers. Sure enough, the warrior told her she had six signals coming from the trackers.

  “Low Mage, I have the trackers and they are operational. Good work. As soon as you make it back we will start preparations for our attack.”

  Cina contacted Caid Maalik, told him the good news and informed him she would be ready to begin the attack on the Hive as soon as Low Mage Arian got back to the Armada. She reminded the Daakie of the jump coordinates should the Armada have to escape the battle. Caid Maalik was excited, and at the same time, nervous. He and his compatriots had been waiting a long time to get revenge on those that captured their homeworld and enslaved their people.